[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]Citibank Korea (CEO Ha, Yung-ku, www.citibank.co.kr) and the Korea Small Business Institute (KOSBI) (President Kim, Dong-sun, www.kosbi.re.kr) jointly held a course completion ceremony for the 6th Citi-KOSBI Women Entrepreneurship Academy (WEA) on Jul. 10, 2013 at the board room of Small and Medium-Sized Business DMC Tower located in Sangam-dong, Seoul in the morning of Jul. 10.

The WEA course was first introduced in April 2009 as part of the Women-Led Enterprise Competitiveness Enhancement Program that has been in place since 2008 sponsored by the Citi Foundation. The goal of the program is identifying role models for the Korean women SME entrepreneurs and helping them develop competitiveness edge. A total of 297 women entrepreneurs have completed the program so far, including 67 women CEOs or middle managers in the 6th WEA and 17 online course takers. The program tuition worth 3 million won per participant is fully sponsored by Citibank Korea. The 6th Citi-KOSBI WEA courses which began with the course opening ceremony on April 9 were provided to women CEOs and middle managers of SMEs every Tuesday.

In particular, from the 6th WEA this year, lecture will be provided on how to do networking effectively to open businesses to the students of Sookmyung Women’s Univ., Dongduk Women’s Univ. that have signed MOU with KOSBI in the 2nd half of this year, and Soongsil Univ., Hoseo Univ., Seoul Women’s Univ., and Peum, an association of youth entrepreneurship in Korea. The special lecture is designed to trigger interest in business opening among university students and future business owners and to support the young prospective CEOs by pairing them with the mentors who have completed the Citi-KOSBI WEA. The program also helps the lecture attendees lend jobs at the companies led by the women CEOs, consequently contributing job creation for youth. The participating undergraduates also have the chances to serve internship at the member companies of Citi-KOSBI WEA and learn how to open a business in real world in connection with the youth working experience program run by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

Son, Min-ji, one of the online course takers (sophomore of Venture SME Department, Soongsil Univ.) said, “It was really helpful that I could take the Citi-KOSBI WEA courses via the internet regardless of time and space, and learning from Women CEOs about how things are going at business sites was also wonderful.”